Metacritic's 10th Annual Game Publisher Rankings
We reveal the past year's best and worst videogame publishers (based on their 2019 releases) in our 10th annual Game Publisher Rankings.
www.metacritic.com
- 505 Games
- Activision Blizzard
- Nintendo
- Paradox Interactive
- Capcom
- Annapurna Interactive
- Xbox Game Studios
- Humble Bundle
- Square Enix
- Devolver Digital
- Focus Home Interactive
- Take-Two Interactive
- Electronic Arts
- Ubisoft
- Team17
- Spike Chunsoft
- Koei Tecmo Games
- Sega
- Bandai Namco Games
- Konami
- Idea Factory
- Sony
- PQube
- XSeed/Marvelous
- tinyBuild
- Iceberg Interactive
- Koch Media
- Digerati Distribution
- THQ Nordic
- Bethesda Softworks
- NIS America
- Daedalic Entertainment
- QubicGames
- Curve Digital
- Plug In Digital
- Ratalaika Games
- Bigben Interactive
- 1C Company
- Headup Games
- Merge Games
methodology:
In past years, we divided publishers into two groups (bigger and less big) based on how many titles each one published. Because the cutoff was arbitrary, and publishers shifted from one group to another from year to year, we have decided to eliminate the groups this year and rank all publishers together in one big group. Publishers with 4 or fewer distinct titles* released last year are excluded.
We have ranked these publishers in order from best overall game quality to worst, using a points-based system based on four factors:
Note that the Metascore average (the first factor) counts slightly more than the other factors. In addition, note that iOS games are not included in the figures below.
- Average Metascore for all games released in 2019
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore)- % of scored products with good reviews (Metascore of at least 75)
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)- % of scored products with bad reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower % is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)- Number of "great" titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a 90+ score